On-demand content customization

ABSTRACT

A system and a method of customizing on-demand printed content are disclosed. In response to receiving a request from a consumer for on-demand printed content, content customization is determined. The determined customization is incorporated within the requested content and the on-demand printed content. Thereafter, and further responsive to the request, an on-demand printed copy of the requested content, including the incorporated customizations, is output for on-demand printing.

BACKGROUND

The publishing industry has greatly benefited from the many advances in digital imaging and printing technologies. Indeed, one of the many advances has been the creation of an on-demand printing market where a publisher prints quantities of a book or other publication to satisfy orders for the publication at the time that the orders are made. This is especially advantageous where requests for the publication are sporadic or limited, such that generating a typical print run would not be cost effective. Moreover, on-demand printing proves advantageous when the publisher is not the originator of the publication and has only a printed copy of the publication, since the publisher can scan the pages of the publication, and generate a document therefrom.

While on-demand printing provides access to a wide variety of content, including out-of-print and/or rare documents, the content is fixed and, therefore, has not been adapted to modern marketing. In contrast, many Internet sites that publish content are able to do so profitably by displaying advertisements with the published content. Indeed, most content providers that host “free” Internet sites are typically supported by advertisements. Of course, in regard to out-of-print or rare books, they typically do not include advertisements and, if they do, the advertisements are out of date and inapplicable. However, as disclosed below, as part of printing documents in an on-demand fashion, the on-demand printed content provides the opportunity to incorporate advertisements, as well as other subject matter, in an on-demand printed document.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will become more readily appreciated as the same become better understood by reference to the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a pictorial diagram illustrating aspects of an on-demand printing process that incorporates advertising into the printed document;

FIG. 2 is a pictorial diagram of an illustrative print-on-demand service suitably configured to incorporate advertising within an on-demand printed document in accordance with aspects of the disclosed subject matter;

FIG. 3A is a pictorial diagram of an illustrative sequence of page images including an advertisement page image;

FIG. 3B is a pictorial diagram of an illustrative page image including margins suitable for printing advertisement and other content;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an illustrative method of printing print-on-demand content including advertisement;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an illustrative method of placing advertisement in print-on-demand content;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an illustrative method of placing content-targeted advertisement in a print-on-demand document;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an illustrative method of placing user-targeted advertisement in a print-on-demand document;

FIG. 8 is a pictorial diagram of an illustrative print-on-demand service suitably configured to incorporate advertising within an on-demand e-book in accordance with aspects of the disclosed subject matter;

FIG. 9 is a pictorial diagram illustrating aspects of an on-demand printing process that incorporates customization into the printed document;

FIG. 10 is a pictorial diagram of an illustrative print-on-demand service suitably configured to incorporate customization within an on-demand printed document in accordance with aspects of the disclosed subject matter;

FIG. 11A is a pictorial diagram of an illustrative on-demand printed document with no customization;

FIG. 11B is a pictorial diagram of the illustrative on-demand printed document of FIG. 11A with customization incorporated into the cover;

FIG. 12 is a pictorial diagram of an illustrative on-demand printed document with an autograph page; and

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of an illustrative method of printing print-on-demand content including customization.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Methods and systems for incorporating advertisements and/or subject matter not part of requested content into an on-demand instance of the requested content, is disclosed. To this end, reference is first made to the overall process for incorporating advertisements and/or other subject matter into on-demand printed content. With regard to advertisements, supplemental content, cross-referenced content, and the like may be collectively and/or alternatively incorporated into an on-demand printed document. However, for the sake of simplicity in the following description, reference will be made only to incorporating advertisements in an on-demand printing process. Nevertheless, it should be appreciated that this is solely for convenience and clarity of the description and should not be construed as limiting upon the disclosed subject matter, and particularly should not be construed as limiting the disclosed subject matter to incorporating only advertisements within an on-demand printed document. Generally speaking, advertisements and/or other content that may be incorporated within an on-demand printed document correspond to subject matter that is not part of the requested, source content.

Turning to FIG. 1, a pictorial diagram 100 is shown illustrating aspects of an on-demand printing process that incorporates advertising into the on-demand printed content. The process beings with a request 104 from a consumer for printed content. The request 104 from a consumer may indicate/identify the content to be printed, such as an out-of-print book, available either locally or available to the print-on-demand service 108 from other sources. Alternatively, the request may include the content to be printed, such as a document in the form of a computer file in a suitable format, such as PDF (Portable Data Format). A request may be accompanied with a printed copy of the content to be printed.

The request 104 may be initiated by a consumer (not illustrated) at a consumer computer 102 with a print-on-demand service 108 over a network 106, as illustrated by arrow 101. Alternatively, the request 104 may be made by other means than by a computer 102. Thus, the process demonstrated in FIG. 1 should be viewed as illustrative and not construed as limiting upon the disclosed subject matter. Regarding the consumer, a “consumer” is a general reference to any number of particular entities, including authors, individuals, content vendors, and the like. While there are any number of entities that may request on-demand printed content, for simplicity in description, they will be generally referred to as a consumer.

For its part, upon receipt of the request 104 for on-demand printed content, the print-on-demand service 108 obtains a computer-readable digital image 110 of the requested content for on-demand printing, as illustrated by arrow 103. The computer-readable digital image 110 of the requested content comprises one or more page images, each page image corresponding to a page of printed content. Digital images, such as digital image 110, may be obtained in any number of formats including raster based images, vector based images, hybrid raster/vector based images, and the like. Obtaining a digital image 110 of the requested content may be accomplished in a variety of manners. For example (not shown), the requested content may correspond to a printed document available to the print-on-demand service 108 which is processed by a scanner or scanning service associated with the print-on-demand service into a digital image 110. Alternatively, the requested content may be supplied by the consumer as a digital image 110 with the request 104, or already available within a content store included with or communicatively available to the print-on-demand service 108. Indeed, those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are numerous sources for obtaining a digital image 110 of requested content, each of which is contemplated as falling within the scope of the disclosed subject matter.

In regard to the requested content, it should be appreciated that the requested content may comprise a plurality of discrete printed documents or other content. For example, the requested content may specify a set of books that were published separately, but that are to be included in a print-on-demand compilation of the set. Accordingly, while the requested content will be referred to in the singular, it is for the sake of simplicity in describing the disclosed subject matter, and should not be construed as limiting upon the disclosed subject matter.

After obtaining a digital image 110 of the requested content, the requested content (in particular, the digital image 110 of the requested content) is optionally processed in order to improve the clarity of digital image and, correspondingly, to improve the on-demand printed instance of the requested content, as indicated by arrow 105. Various suitable examples of processing a digital image 110 of content are more fully explored in co-pending patent applications, including U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/864,208, filed Sep. 28, 2007, entitled “Processing a Digital Image of Content,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/864,187, filed Sep. 28, 2007, entitled “Processing a Digital Image of Content Using Content Aware Despeckling,” and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/864,180, filed Sep. 28, 2007, entitled “Processing a Digital Image of Content to Remove Border Artifacts,” each of which is incorporated herein by reference.

After processing the digital image 110 for print-readiness (if necessary), the print-on-demand service 108 selectively adds advertisements 116 to the digital image 110, as indicated by arrow 107. Adding one or more advertisements 116 (or other supplemental content) to a digital image 110 of requested content is described in greater detail below.

Once advertisements 116 have been added to the digital image (as now shown as digital image 112), the print-on-demand service 108 causes the digital image 112 to be printed, as indicated by arrow 109. Printing the digital image 112 may be carried out by the print-on-demand service 108, or alternatively printed by a service available to the print-on-demand service. Printing content in an on-demand manner is known in the art. After printing the requested content, the on-demand printed content 114 is delivered to the consumer.

With regard to the print-on-demand service 108, FIG. 2 is a pictorial diagram of a print-on-demand service 108 illustratively implemented on a computing device and configured to incorporate one or more advertisements within an on-demand printed document in response to a request for the printed content. As shown in FIG. 2, the print-on-demand service 108 includes a processor 202 to execute computer-executable instructions to carry out the various functions of the print-on-demand service, and a memory 204 that stores computer-executable instructions and data. The memory comprises any number of combinations of volatile and/or non-volatile memory including, but not limited to, random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, and the like, and is generally used to hold executable code, such as software application programs, and data. It should be further appreciated that there are a variety of computing devices that may be configured as the on print-on-demand service 108, including but not limited, to personal computers, mini- and/or mainframe computers, laptop computers, and the like.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that an exemplary print-on-demand service 108 may be suitably implemented on multiple cooperative computing devices interconnected via a network 106 including both local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs). Accordingly, while the following discussion will be made as though the print-on-demand service 108 is implemented on a single computing device, this is for ease of description only and should not be viewed as limiting upon the disclosed subject matter.

The print-on-demand service 108 also typically includes a network interface 206 that provides connectivity to the print-on-demand service with external network resources, including external digital image sources, scanners and/or scanning services, and/or consumer devices over a network 106. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the print-on-demand service 108 also typically includes a number of additional components, such as, but not limited to, scanners, input/output devices, printing facilities, and the like that are common to a suitable computing system, though not described with particularity herein.

The print-on-demand service 108 may also include logical components, generally implemented as software modules and loaded onto memory 204, such as a processing component 208 that processes an obtained digital image 110 for print-on-demand readiness, an advertisement component 210 that selectively adds advertisements (or other supplemental content) to a digital image 110, and a printing component 212 that prints (or causes to be printed) an updated digital image 112, or generates an e-book, that includes one or more advertisements in an on-demand manner. In regard to these components, as mentioned above these various components are logical components and, therefore, not necessarily actual and/or discrete components. Indeed, one or any of the logical components may be combined together or with other logical and/or actual components, including components not discussed herein. Moreover, these various components of the print-on-demand service 108 may be implemented in hardware, in software, or a combination thereof.

The print-on-demand service 108 is further illustrated in FIG. 2 as including a content store 214, a processed content store 220, an advertisement store 216, and a user profile store 218. The content store 214 stores digital images of content and, in various embodiments, may include processed digital images of content, and may further include processed digital images of content into which advertisements have been incorporated. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, storing processed digital images may be desirable for efficiency purposes. In one illustrative embodiment, as noted above, the content store 214 includes both un-processed digital images of content as well as processed digital images of content. In another illustrative embodiment, the un-processed digital images are stored in content store 214 while the processed digital images are stored in processed content store 220. As indicated above, many types of processing may be performed on digital images resulting in processed digital images suitable for on-demand printing.

The content store 214 and/or processed content store 220 may include metadata in addition to the digital images. The metadata generally contain information describing the associated data, in this case, the digital images. The metadata may include information such as size of the digital images, file formats, encoding information, subject matter information, relationship to other digital images, such as page numbers in a sequence of digital images, and the like. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that metadata may include any kind of information that the author or owner of the digital images may wish to associate with the digital images. Any kind of data, including advertisement data, may be associated with metadata as more fully described below.

In one illustrative embodiment, the illustrated data stores, including the content store 214, the processed content store 220, the advertisement store 216, and the user profile store 218, are typically coupled with the computer system implementing print-on-demand service 108 via an input/output (I/O) bus 222. In alternative embodiments, any or all of the content stores may be remotely located with respect to the print-on-demand service 108. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that peripheral devices, such as the data stores discussed above, may be locally or remotely coupled to a computer system in many ways including many types of I/O interfaces, such as IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics), SCSI (Small Computer System Interface), USB (Universal Serial Bus), and networked I/O for remote data stores.

The advertisement store 216 stores advertisements to be included in an on-demand printed instance of requested content. Of course, advertisements (or other supplemental content) may be obtained from, in place of or in addition to, an external source over a network. Accordingly, the disclosed subject matter should not be construed as limited to obtaining advertisements and/or other content from a local advertisement store 216. As noted above, the advertisement store 216 may additionally include metadata for storing information about the advertisements, as distinct from the content of the advertisements. For example, the metadata may include information such as size of the advertisement, type of the advertisement, relevance, related content, cost, and other information and parameters that may be useful in selecting and including advertisements in an on-demand printed document.

As mentioned, the metadata may include information related to the requested content. For example, the metadata may include subject matter information, such as sports-related subjects, that may be related to the subject matter of the requested content. Using such subject-related information in the metadata, the advertisements associated with the metadata may in turn be associated with the requested content having a similar subject matter. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that metadata may be stored in many formats and associated with the data that the metadata describes in many different manners. For example, the metadata may be stored in a file header containing the advertisement, a separate table associated with the advertisement, or even in a separate file associated with the advertisement file. Digital image metadata, typically stored in the content stores 214 and 220, and the advertisement metadata, typically stored in the advertisement store 216, may be used in conjunction with each other to select advertisement suitable for use with the digital images. For example, both sets of metadata may include subject matter information, such as sports or history, that could be used to associate appropriate advertisements with the digital images of the content.

The user profile store 218 optionally includes profile information. More particularly, user profile information advantageously identifies various aspects related to a user, such as interests, hobbies, currently owned and/or purchased items, and the like, that may be used in selecting advertisements for inclusion in an on-demand instance of requested content.

As noted above, the print-on-demand service 108 may include advertisements and/or other related content in a printed instance of requested content according to aspects of the disclosed subject matter. Including advertising and/or related content with on-demand printed content may prove advantageous to a consumer. For example, a lower price may be offered to a consumer regarding a request for on-demand printed content if the consumer is willing to accept advertising in the printed content 114. Additionally, a consumer may benefit from content-related information that is not part of the requested content, such as supplemental reference material, relevant footnotes, illustrations, and the like. Content-related information, as well as advertisements may be included in the form of appendixes or in-line with the requested printed content.

In adding advertisements 116 to the requested content, according to one embodiment, the advertisement component 210 accesses metadata (not shown) associated with the advertisement to select and/or ascertain which advertisements (or related content) to include in the requested printed content 114. The advertising metadata is typically stored with the advertisements in the advertisements store 216. However, the advertisement metadata may alternatively be stored separately. By way of illustration and example, advertisement metadata may be stored in an XML (Extensible Markup Language) data file storing information that may be advantageously used in determining the appropriateness of an advertisement for inclusion in requested content. The advertisement metadata may include the type of advertisement, information for placing advertisements in a digital image 110, and the like.

Regarding the location or placement of advertisements in requested content, there are many places where advertisement pages may be inserted with regard to the original requested content. For example and not by way of limitation, advertisements may be placed at the beginning of the requested printed content, at the end of the content, periodically throughout the content (such as every ten pages), at the beginning or end of chapters and/or other sections of the content, and the like.

In one embodiment, the advertisement component 210 parses the advertisement metadata and retrieves advertisements 116 from the advertisement store 216. In one illustrative embodiment, advertisements 116 are digital images suitable for on-demand printing. In another illustrative embodiment, the advertisements 116 may be stored in a different format in the advertisement store 216 and be converted to a printable image by the advertisement component 210 or other processing components within the print-on-demand service 108 on an as-needed basis. In one embodiment, the advertisement component 210 obtains the digital image 110 retrieved from content store 214, selects advertisements from the advertisement store 216, and combines the advertisement images 116 in the digital image 110 to create the modified digital image 112 that is suitable for on-demand printing.

The metadata may include information about the advertisements other than the placement of the advertisements within the sequence of page images. The metadata may include information regarding the nature, or subject matter, of the advertisements such that they can be correlated to the requested content. For example, the metadata may indicate which particular advertisements from the advertisement store 216 are to be used based on the subject matter of the requested content. For instance, if the requested content includes a novel taking place in Europe, the advertisements may include information about European hotels, resorts, etc.

The advertisements 116 from the advertisement store 216 may also include information of general interest to the customer ordering the requested content. The metadata may include information about advertisements 116 or other content based on user profile information obtained from the user profile store 218. The advertisement component 210 may select advertisements based on user profile information indicated by the metadata as being relevant to the requested printed content 114. For example, if the customer has a history of interest in travel as indicated by the associated user profile, the advertisement component 210 may include, in the printed content 114, advertisements related to travel, even though such advertisement may not be directly relevant to the requested content. Additionally, the advertisements may be selected contextually based on the requested content. For example, an advertisement page image 116 may be inserted in a location within the requested printed content 114 where the content of the advertisement is closely related to the requested content in the page before or after the advertisement page image 116. For instance, if a restaurant is described on page 12 of the requested printed content 114, the advertisement page image 116 next to page 12, i.e., either on page 11 or page 13, may include advertisements about restaurants, wine, food, etc., which are related to restaurants and dining.

As noted above, advertisements may be included in the requested printed content 114 as full-page advertisements dedicated only to advertising with no requested content appearing thereon. FIG. 3A is a pictorial diagram of an illustrative sequence of page images including an advertisement page image. In this configuration, a full-page of advertisements 334 including one or more advertisements 340 appears in an independent page N+1 next to pages 332 and 336 containing requested content 338 and 342, respectively. The advertisement page 334 generally includes no requested content 338 or 342 and is dedicated to advertisement content 340. Such advertisement pages 334 may appear in groups or individually at different page locations within the requested printed content 114 and each such advertisement page 334 may include an advertisement 340. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that although not illustrated in FIG. 3A, multiple advertisements may be placed on the advertisement page 334. As noted above, such advertisement pages 334 may appear at the beginning of the requested printed content 114, at the beginning of chapters, at the end of the publication, periodically throughout the content, and the like. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that such full-page dedicated advertisement pages 334 may be placed within the requested printed content 114 according to many parameters, considerations, and algorithms. For example, advertisement pages 334 may be concentrated toward the beginning of the requested printed content 114 dispersed equally throughout the publication, or concentrated toward the end of the publication.

The advertisement 340 may include information useful for obtaining further information about the product/services being advertised by the advertisement 340. The advertisement information may illustratively include an advertising token or code that the client may enter via a computer terminal at a Web site to get further information and/or promotions associated with the advertisement 340. For example, the token may be in the form of a human-readable number or encoded characters, such as a barcode, that may be used to get additional discounts on a product and/or service advertised by the advertisement 340. The advertising tokens and the like may be used as evidence of user interest in the advertisement 340, and the basis for creating a record of success for charging advertisers. Thus, advertising information, such as tokens, may be used to track the effectiveness of a particular advertisement. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, generally speaking, the more the token is entered into the Web site UI, the more successful the advertisement 340, and the more the advertiser providing the advertisement 340 may be charged. The advertising information may further be used to track user interests and further build user profile, for example, by adding to or updating data in the user profile store 218.

The placement of advertisements is not necessarily limited to dedicated advertisement pages 334 placed among requested content pages 332 and 336. Any writable space in the requested printed content 114 may be used for placing advertisements of various forms and configurations. FIG. 3B is a pictorial diagram of an illustrative page image of content including margins suitable for printing advertisements and other related information. As illustrated in FIG. 3B, a typical publication page has four margins including a top margin 308, a bottom margin 312, a left margin 306, and a right margin 310. Margins of the page 302 surround the content 304 of the page. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that although almost all publications, such as books, magazines, etc., have a rectangular shape, other publication shapes are possible. For example, a publication may be in the form of a circle or other irregular shapes, such as the shape of a horse, for example, for a children's book. Books with irregular shapes also have margins which are defined as a blank space surrounding the content of the page, whatever the shape of the page might be. Accordingly, references made to top, bottom, left, and right margins herein are equally applicable to content of nonrectangular shapes. Metadata parsed by the advertisement component 210 may generally indicate where on the margins of a page image to place advertisements. For example, the metadata may indicate that a particular advertisement 314 be placed on the top margin 308 of a requested content page image 302. Similarly, an advertisement 316 may be placed in the right margin 310 of the requested content page image 302. To place advertisements on margins of a requested content page 302, the advertisement content must first be included in the requested content page image 302 to create a requested page image having advertisement content rendered thereon.

According to aspects of the disclosed subject matter, the space within the margins available for advertising may be modified to accommodate advertisements, including those that might not otherwise fit on a particular printed page. One way for modifying the margins includes scaling the requested content page image 110 to create wider margins. Of course, numerous means for modifying the margins of a page may be implemented when it is desirable to place advertising in the margins.

In addition to advertisements, other information or content may be included in the requested printed content 114 related to the requested content. Text in many written materials, historical books, reports, magazine articles, etc., refer to other publications or content not directly included in such written material. It may be desirable for the customer to have such reference material referenced in the requested content to be included in the requested printed content 114, for example, in the form of an appendix. For example, if the customer requests content including historical events, such as an out-of-print history book, the customer may desire to have all or some of the external material referenced in the requested content included in the requested printed content 114. Such additional referenced content may be included in the requested printed content 114 as appendices, footnotes on appropriate pages, or additional pages dispersed appropriately throughout the requested printed content 114.

In addition to advertisements and reference material, other related content may be included with the requested content in the requested printed content 114. Such other content may include background information related to the requested content, recommendations for other products, books, or services, related to the requested content or based on the user profile, or any other extra content somehow related to the requested content or user profile. For example, if the customer requests content about ship building, other content about the history of ship building may be added to the requested content for inclusion in the requested printed content 114.

As with full-page advertisements 334, advertisements 314 and 316 placed on margins of the requested content page image 302 may include advertising tokens as discussed above with respect to FIG. 3A.

Turning now to illustrative methods for incorporating advertisements in requested content, FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an illustrative method of printing on-demand printed content including one or more advertisements. The print-on-demand routine 400 continues to block 410 where on-demand content is obtained by the print-on-demand service 108. With reference to FIGS. 1, 2, and 4, and as discussed above, a digital image 110 of the requested content may be obtained from many sources including the content store 214 or external sources, such as third parties or scanning facilities that provide page images of requested content from existing printed samples of the same content, such as existing copies of old books and publications. If a digital image 110 of the requested content is not available, the digital image 110 may be created dynamically, for example, by scanning, and integrated to create the requested printed content 114.

At block 420, the page images 110 are processed by the processing component 208. As discussed above, many kinds of processing may be performed on the page images 110 to prepare the page images 110 for automated printing, improve visual quality, sort, change scale, etc. At block 430, authorization by the customer for placement of advertisements in the requested printed content 114 is verified. In one illustrative embodiment, at the time that the customer requests the printing of the printed content 114, the print-on-demand service 108 asks the customer whether the customer is willing to receive the printed content 114 having advertisements included therein for a lower charge than customer would pay for the printed content 114 without advertisements. Additionally (not shown), the print-on-demand service 108 may ask the customer whether the customer wants to have additional non-advertisement content, such as reference material, or other information related to the requested content such as background information, be included in the requested printed content 114 for an additional charge. If the permission to add additional content to the requested printed content 114 is verified, the routine proceeds to block 440 where the additional information is added to the requested printed content 114, as more fully described with respect to FIGS. 5-7 below. The additional content, including advertisements, references, recommendations, etc., may be predetermined and pre-stored in the advertisement and content data stores 214 and 216, respectively, or may be obtained dynamically from a third party, such as an advertiser, or a third party advertising service provider. For example, information about the requested content, obtained from content metadata, may be provided to the third party during the print-on-demand service 108 processing step 105 to obtain suitable advertisements 116. The routine 400 then proceeds to block 450 where the requested content is printed by the printing component 212. In the case of an e-book, more fully described below with reference to FIGS. 2 and 8, the printing component 212 generates the e-book at block 450. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the e-book may be generated by a separate component (not shown) distinct from the printing component 212. Back at decision block 430, if the authorization by client to add additional content is not verified, the routine proceeds to block 450 for printing the requested content. The routine 400 terminates at block 460.

As described above, the requested printed content 114 may be created based on the requested content as well as advertisements related to the requested content. FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an illustrative method of placing advertisements in a print-on-demand document, particularly in regard to placing advertisements in a print-on-demand document where the advertisements are selected and/or located in the requested content according to the subject matter of the content.

The routine 500 proceeds to block 510 where metadata may be consulted as to what advertisements are to be included in the requested printed content 114. With reference to FIG. 1, the metadata may include information about the type of advertisement and placement of advertisement in the requested printed content 114. The metadata may be included in a data file with a particular format such as XML. As also described above, the metadata provides information about the type and placement of advertisements, the type and placement of other content such as reference material, and type and placement of a recommendation for related products and services, such as related books. Generally, the advertisement component 210 retrieves metadata from the advertisement store 216 to parse and obtain information about other content to be included in the requested printed content 114 along with the requested content. The parsed metadata may indicate which advertisements to retrieve from the advertisement store 216 and where to place the advertisements within the final sequence of page images 112 before printing. At block 520, the advertisement component 210 obtains advertisements and/or other content from the advertisement store 216 or other data store, respectively. The advertisement component 210 creates appropriate page images including both the requested content and the advertisement or other content to be integrated according to the information obtained from the metadata. The other content may be incorporated into the final digital image 112 as separate page images inserted between requested content page images or as other content integrated with the requested page images, for example, as other content on margins of the requested page images.

At block 530, the advertisements are placed at the proper location within the requested printed content 114 based on the parsed metadata. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that placement of advertisements in different available locations within the margins of requested content page images, or on independent page images, may be optimized such that the number of advertisements are maximized. That is, advertisements or other content may be placed in such size, orientation, and font as to maximize the number of additional information and, at the same time, minimize the amount of space required to include such other content in the requested printed content 114. Additionally, different print locations within the requested printed content 114 and also within an individual page may have different values and different levels of desirability. Like real estate, printing space in some areas of a document may have more commercial value for advertisers than other places in the document. For example, an advertisement placed at the beginning of a chapter may be more visible to the reader of the book than advertisement placed in a page at the back of the book. Similarly, advertisements placed on top or bottom margins may be more visible and readable than advertisements placed on the left or right margins of a page image. Accordingly, different prices may be associated with different places in which advertisement or other content may appear. Another type of page image that may be included in the requested printed content 114 is a foldout insert suitable for placing advertisements with larger and more prominent size and having a different type of paper to be more visible and accessible by a reader of the book.

As described above, the advertisements or other content may be associated with the subject matter of the requested content. FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an illustrative method of placing content-targeted advertisements in a print-on-demand document. The print-on-demand with content-targeted advertising routine proceeds to block 610 where metadata is parsed by the advertisement component 210. The metadata parsed by the advertisement component 210 may include information about the subject matter of the requested content and advertisements or other content, such as reference material, closely associated with the subject matter of the requested content. The advertisement component 210 obtains advertisements from the advertisement store 216 based on the parsed metadata at block 620. At block 630, the retrieved advertisement is placed at an appropriate location, either in an independent page image or on the margins of the requested content page image based on the information obtained from the parsed metadata by the advertisement component 210. For example, if a paragraph within a requested content page image describes a sports competition, the content manager may place a sports equipment advertisement, such as an advertisement for a sports shoe, on the left or right margin closest to the paragraph describing the sports event.

The advertisement or other content may also be selected based on user-targeted criteria. FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an illustrative method of placing user-targeted advertisements in a print-on-demand document. The print-on-demand with user-targeted advertising routine proceeds to block 710 where metadata obtained from the metadata data store 130 is parsed by advertisement component 210. With reference also to FIGS. 1 and 2 now, at block 720, the advertisement component 210 also retrieves user profile information from the user profile store 218, associated with the client. At block 730, the advertisement component 210 selects advertisements or other content from advertisement store 216 or other data store (not shown), respectively, based on information obtained from the user profile and the parsed metadata. At block 740, the advertisement is placed at a proper location within the requested printed content 114 based on the user profile and the metadata. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that user-targeted and content-targeted advertising or other content may be placed in the requested printed content 114 in combination or individually. User-targeted advertising may be based on the history of requests from client or other user profile information such as age and demographics.

The process described above is generally directed towards incorporating advertisements into on-demand printed content in contrast to outputting the requested content with advertisements in digital form. However, the foregoing descriptions and discussions of the print-on-demand service 108 are equally applicable to generating on-demand content with advertisements in other media/forms, such as generating on-demand electronic books or “e-books” that include advertisements. Electronic books can provide the same content as printed content. Therefore, the requested content may be delivered to the client in the form of printed paper or as digital content, such as an e-book, for reading using an e-book reader.

E-books may be read on a variety of electronic devices, such as personal computers, PDAs (personal digital assistant), or dedicated electronic e-book reader devices. As noted above, generally, e-books have fixed content. That is, the content presented on e-book readers is typically predetermined and cannot be changed dynamically by a user, like content on Web pages. As such, the process described above with respect to generating on-demand printed content is equally applicable to generating e-book content. Specifically, when the content of the e-books is created, fixed advertising or other fixed content may be added to the requested content using the same means and processes described above. With reference to FIGS. 1, 2, and 8, the some of the differences between generating on-demand printed content and on-demand fixed electronic content, i.e., e-books, are in the final steps, depicted by arrows 809 and 811, where instead of a paper-printed content 114, a digital representation of the requested content with advertisements, i.e., an e-book 814, is generated in step 809 by the printing component 212 and delivered to the client in step 811. All other steps for the creation of digital content 112 remain substantially the same.

Due to the nature of e-books and e-book readers, certain other capabilities are available to the client which are absent from printed content. Such other capabilities are related to the processing and communication capabilities of e-book readers. A client may use the local processing power and memory of an the e-book reader or use wireless and/or other networking technologies to access further information related to the requested content and/or the other content, such as advertisements, included therein. For example, with reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B, an advertisement 340, 314, or 316 may be in the form of one or a few descriptive advertising words, pictures, or symbols, indicating that further information may be obtained by selecting such advertising words, pictures, or symbols. On selection, expanded information may be presented to the client.

However, in contrast to content presented by Web site hosts, once the requested fixed electronic content 814 is generated, the advertisements 340, 314, or 316 themselves are fixed on the requested content page images 302 or advertisement page image 334. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the presentation of the expanded information may take many forms. In one illustrative embodiment, a “mouse-over” move on the advertising words, pictures, or symbols may open a dialog-type window to present the expanded information. In another illustrative embodiment, the selection, for example by a mouse click, of the advertising words, pictures, or symbols, may cause another window to open or a web browser application program to be launched to present the expanded information. In yet another illustrative embodiment, the expanded information may be presented using a combination of the methods described above, depending on, for example, the size and complexity of the expanded information. If the expanded information is limited to a few additional words or pictures, then a dialog-type window may be sufficient. However, if the expanded information includes a great deal of information, links, or images, then another window or a web browser application may be used to present such expanded information.

Similar to the advertisements 340, 314, and 316 discussed above with respect to printed content, advertisements placed on e-books may include advertising tokens. Such tokens are used substantially as described above with respect to the printed content.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that incorporating advertisements into content is one form of customization, but not the only form of customization. Indeed, numerous other customizations may be applied to content, such as customizing the cover of an on-demand printed book, adding supplemental materials (e.g., dedication and/or signature pages, indices, references, etc.) and the like.

Regarding cover customizations, according to aspects of the disclosed subject matter, when requesting content for on-demand printing, the entire cover can be customized according to consumer requests. More particularly, a cover customization may be directed to the cover materials used (e.g., paper, paperboard, fabric covered paperboard, simulated and actual leather, and the like), colors, the arrangement (or exclusion) of any of the title/author/publisher information, added descriptions (including but not limited to descriptive terms such as “Special Edition,” “Book 1 of 100,” and the like), embossing letters, pictures, binding type, and the like. Indeed, cover customization may be directed to both the inside and outside cover surfaces, as well as the spine area.

In addition to cover customization, content customizations may further include special dedication locations within the content and/or on a separate dedication page of the requested printed content 114. Another example of content customization may be directed to incorporating a signature page for an autograph by the author of the content.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that customization may take many forms including customization and/or personalization of the cover, dedication page, acknowledgement page, autograph page, embellished pages, color scheme, document dimensions, photographs, quotes, and the like. Personalization, as recited above, refers to incorporating personal information into the on-demand printed content and may include personal information such as names, pictures, birthdates, anniversary information, and the like. Still further, in addition to customizing the cover, the customization may be located in the on-demand printed content based on context and/or subject matter. Additional content customizations may include, but are not limited to, the color, quality, and/or type of pages for use in the on-demand printing. For example, the client may specify that the requested content be printed on a particular type of particular stationery. For instance, if the requested content is about historical subjects, the client may indicate that a type and color of paper be used with an antique look and feel.

It should be appreciated, in regard to adding advertisements and/or customizations to the requested content, that the additions and/or customization to the content are superficial such that the subject matter of the content is not altered. In other words, while pages of advertisements may be placed in an on-demand generated document, and even while the entire cover of an on-demand printed book is customized, the subject matter of the requested content is unaltered. In further regard to customization generally, and particularly regarding cover customization, the customization is not necessarily limited to particular fields on a given cover in which text and/or graphics may be added, but rather the entire cover may be manipulated in regard to its subject matter and/or the materials used.

FIGS. 9 and 10, while similar to FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively, reflect content customization more generally. In particular, FIG. 9 includes arrow 907 where the instance of print-on-demand content is customized. For its part, FIG. 10 includes a customization component 1024 and a customization store 1026. While illustrated as being components in addition to the advertisement component 210 and the advertisement store 216, it should be appreciated that these components are logical components and may exist individually or be combined with other components in an actual embodiment. It should be further appreciated that while components such as the customization component 1024 and printing component 212 are illustrated as being implemented on a single device, this should be viewed as illustrative of one embodiment and not construed as limiting upon the disclosed subject matter. Indeed, in an alternative embodiment, the cover customization component 1024 resides on a distinct processing device from that of the printing component 212. Still further, the customization store 1026 may be local to the customization component 1024 or, alternatively, located remote to the customization store but connected thereto by a communication network 106.

By way of example regarding cover customization, FIGS. 11A and 11B show various examples of an illustrated on-demand printed document. In particular, assume that FIG. 11A illustrates an on-demand printed book 1102 where the book cover 1104 was not customized. In contrast, FIG. 11B shows an illustrative example of a customized book 1106 with the same title and subject matter as book 1102.

As mentioned above, cover customization may occur on the external and internal surfaces of the cover (as well as the spine.) FIG. 12 shows an illustrative example of customization of the inside front cover 1204 of a book 1202, as well as further customization with an author's autograph 1206 on a title page.

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of an illustrative routine 1300 for printing an on-demand instance of customized content according to a customer request. Beginning at block 1310, a request for content is obtained from a customer. In one embodiment, the customer's request includes information identifying the content that is requested as well as the information regarding customizations to be made to the on-demand printed instance of the requested content. By way of example, the request may correspond to a gifting activity by the customer to a friend with the intent to include a customized dedication page to be included with the content. In alternative embodiments, customization information may be obtained separately from the request for the content and/or may be obtained from a local or remote customization store, such as customization store 1026 (FIG. 10).

At block 1320, an image corresponding to the requested content is obtained. As suggested above, the image corresponding to the requested content may be obtained from a variety of local and/or remote sources, or provided by the customer. Once the image corresponding to the requested content is obtained, at block 1330 the image is processed to place the content in a better condition for on-demand printing. Processing content for on-demand printing is illustratively described above with respect to FIG. 4.

At block 1340, the obtained image corresponding to the requested content is further processed according to the obtained customization information. As already suggested, customization information may correspond to customizations of a book cover for the requested content, dedications, personalizations, messages corresponding to gifting the content, additional reference material such as indices and tables of content, inscriptions, and the like. Of course, while illustrated as being conducted after the obtained content is processed for on-demand printing, the image corresponding to the requested content may be customized prior to processing the on-demand printing. Accordingly, the order of steps shown herein should be viewed as illustrative and not limiting upon the disclosed subject matter.

At block 1350, the processed requested content including customizations is output for on-demand printing to an on-demand printing service. While not shown, in the alternative the processed requested content and customizations may be printed in an on-demand manner, and the on-demand printed instance of the requested content is then made available in accordance with the content request. The on-demand printed content may be made available by delivering a copy to the consumer or user who ordered the on-demand printed content, sending copies to a bookstore for distribution as a special edition, providing the customized on-demand printed content to students for a special course for which such on-demand printed content was generated, or the like. Thereafter, the routine 1300 terminates.

While illustrative embodiments have been illustrated and described, it will be appreciated that various changes can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. 

1. A computer-implemented print-on-demand system for generating a customized on-demand printed document, the system comprising a processor and a memory, and further comprising: a processing component that obtains a digital image of content in response to a request for the content and processes the digital image of content for on-demand print readiness; a printing component that obtains the requested content and customization information corresponding to a cover of an on-demand printed copy of the requested content; and wherein the printing component is configured to output the requested content to a first device to print the on-demand copy of the requested content without the cover and to provide the customization information and the on-demand printed copy of the requested content to a second device to cover the on-demand printed copy of the requested content with the cover, the cover being customized according to the customization information.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the customization information corresponds to a spine of cover materials for the on-demand printed copy of the requested content.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the customization information corresponds to customization of an inside cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the customization information corresponds to a type of cover materials for the on-demand printed copy of the requested content.
 5. A method of providing customized on-demand printed content, the method comprising: obtaining a request for an on-demand printed copy of content; and responsive to the request for the content: obtaining a digital image corresponding to the requested content; obtaining customization information for customizing the requested content; outputting the requested content to a first device to print an on-demand copy of the requested content without a cover; and providing the customization information and the on-demand printed copy of the requested content to a second device to cover the on-demand printed copy of the requested content with a customized cover, the customized cover being customized according to the customization information.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein an outside cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content is customized according to the customization information.
 7. The method of claim 5, wherein an inside cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content is customized according to the customization information.
 8. The method of claim 5, wherein a spine of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content is customized according to the customization information.
 9. The method of claim 5, wherein the customization information corresponds to a type of cover materials for the cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content.
 10. The method of claim 5, further comprising generating a copy of the customized requested content.
 11. The method of claim 5 wherein the customization information is obtained from a remote customization store.
 12. A computer-implemented print-on-demand system for generating on-demand printed copies of content, the system comprising a processor and a memory, and further configured to obtain a request for a printed copy of content, and in response to the request: obtain a digital image of the requested content, wherein the digital image comprises a plurality of page images; obtain customization information to be applied to the on-demand printed copy of the requested content; determine a location to apply the obtained customization information to the on-demand printed copy of the requested content, wherein the location to apply the obtained customization information corresponds to a cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content; and output the requested content and the customization information for on-demand printing, wherein outputting the requested content and the customization information for on-demand printing comprises outputting the requested content to a first device to print an on-demand copy of the requested content without the cover and providing the customization information and the on-demand printed copy of the requested content to a second device to cover the on-demand printed copy of the requested content with the cover, the cover being customized according to the customization information.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein the system is further configured to print a copy of the requested content including the customized cover in an on-demand manner.
 14. The system of claim 12, wherein the location to apply the obtained customization information to the on-demand printed copy of the requested content comprises an outside portion of the cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein the location to apply the obtained customization information to the on-demand printed copy of the requested content further comprises an inside portion of the cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein the location to apply the obtained customization information to the on-demand printed copy of the requested content further comprises a spine area of the cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content.
 17. A tangible computer-readable medium bearing computer-executable instructions which, when executed on a computing system, carry out a method for generating on-demand printed copies of content, the method comprising: obtaining a request for a printed copy of content, and in response to the request: obtaining a digital image of the requested content, wherein the digital image comprises a plurality of page images; obtaining customization information to be applied to the on-demand printed copy of the requested content; determining a location to apply the obtained customization information to the on-demand printed copy of the requested content; applying the obtained customization information to the digital image of the requested content at the determined location, wherein the determined location to apply the obtained customization information to the on-demand printed copy of the requested content comprises an outside portion of a cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content; and outputting the customized requested content for on-demand printing.
 18. The system of claim 17, further comprising printing a copy of the customized requested content in an on-demand manner.
 19. The system of claim 18, wherein the location to apply the obtained customization information to the on-demand printed copy of the requested content further comprises an inside portion of the cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content.
 20. The system of claim 19, wherein the location to apply the obtained customization information to the on-demand printed copy of the requested content further comprises a spine area of the cover on-demand printed copy of the requested content.
 21. An on-demand printed copy of requested content, the on-demand printed copy of requested content comprising: an on-demand printed copy of a digital image of requested content comprising a plurality of pages and a customized cover on the on-demand printed copy of the requested content, wherein the on-demand printed copy of the requested content was created by the process of: obtaining a request for a printed copy of the requested content; obtaining a digital image of the requested content; obtaining customization information for the cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content; printing the digital image of the requested content to generate the on-demand printed copy of the requested content; and covering the on-demand printed copy of the requested content with the cover customized according to the obtained customization information, wherein a location to apply the obtained customization information to the customized cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content comprises at least two of an outside cover, an inside cover, and a spine area of the cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content.
 22. The on-demand printed copy of requested content of claim 21, wherein printing the digital image of the requested content to generate the on-demand printed copy of the requested content and covering the on-demand printed copy of the requested content with the cover customized according to the obtained customization information are performed by the same processing device.
 23. The on-demand printed copy of requested content of claim 21, wherein printing the digital image of the requested content to generate the on-demand printed copy of the requested content and covering the on-demand printed copy of the requested content with the cover customized according to the obtained customization information are performed by separate processing devices.
 24. The on-demand printed copy of requested content of claim 21, wherein the process of creating the on-demand printed copy of requested content further comprises: determining the location to apply the obtained customization information to the on-demand printed copy of the requested content; and covering the on-demand printed copy of the requested content with the cover customized according to the obtained customization information at the determined location.
 25. The on-demand printed copy of requested content of claim 24, wherein the location to apply the obtained customization information to the cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content comprises the at least two of the outside cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content.
 26. The on-demand printed copy of requested content of claim 24, wherein the location to apply the obtained customization information to the cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content comprises the inside cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content.
 27. The on-demand printed copy of requested content of claim 24, wherein the location to apply the obtained customization information to the cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content the spine area of the cover of the on-demand printed copy of the requested content. 